Review: Beyond the Gloaming Pass

Beyond the Gloaming Pass by Rebecca Holmes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dystopian, a genre which I wasn't expecting from the blurb, and which I dislike.

In the pre-publication copy I had from Netgalley, I found most of the usual mechanical issues: missing past perfect tense, "may" where it should be "might," a few punctuation issues, and some quite basic vocabulary errors. These may (or, more probably, may not) be fixed by the time of publication. The larger issue, though, was that the limited third-person point of view was periodically violated, with the narrative including information that the point-of-view character couldn't have known. The worst example, just before I stopped at 34%, is that a character who has not yet introduced himself to the viewpoint character is referred to in the narrative by his name.

That character is one of a series of fortunately helpful strangers that the protagonists keep encountering, reducing both tension and their agency, and he appears in the role of a deus ex machina, rescuing one of the protagonists in the middle of nowhere from a situation she couldn't have escaped by herself.

The two protags are separated from an early point, which means their relationship isn't able to have the importance it otherwise could. I did wonder at one point if they were going to turn out to be a couple, but they are just friends - which I did like; it seems that (under the influence of fanfiction, perhaps) it's rare these days for two characters to be friends with no romantic connection, and I do like to see a good friendship. However, as I mentioned, the fact that they're geographically separated and not interacting does undermine that aspect. As far as I'd read, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as romance in this world, in fact; none of the male strangers that help the two women do anything remotely approaching hitting on them, and neither of them, having reached early middle age, appear to have had any romantic involvement at any time in their lives. That's not necessarily a negative, as such, but I did find it a significant and unexplained absence.

The blurb claims that this is:

"A gripping fantasy novel that weaves together themes of friendship, resilience, and the search for truth. With its vivid world-building, profound emotional depth, and heart-wrenching conclusion, this book will keep readers enchanted until the very last page.

If you liked... Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, you’ll love the immersive world and strong female main characters of Beyond the Gloaming Pass."

Unfortunately, I can report that from my perspective, none of this is true (except possibly the heart-wrenching conclusion, because I didn't get that far, thanks to being neither gripped nor enchanted). I found it rather dull, in fact, and both the general execution and the worldbuilding struck me as mediocre. The characters weren't unusually strong, and I either hadn't reached the emotional depth part yet at 34% or else that, too, is false advertising. I should know better by now than to believe the praise a book's blurb gives it, or the old "if you liked [popular book] you'll also love this" line, which is almost without exception untrue, so the joke's on me for being fooled.

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